Golunda aouraghei, sp. nov., the last representative of the genus Golunda in Africa

Abstract

In this paper, we report a new species of the murid genus Golunda at the Plio-Pleistocene site of Guefaït-4 (Jerada, Morocco). It is a large-sized murid characterized by the presence of relative good lateral connections between the tubercles. The new species shows affinities with Golunda jaegeri from Oued Athmenia 1. However, some morphological differences become remarkable when compared. We propose the anagenetic lineage Golunda jaegeri ? Golunda aouraghei, marked by a slight increase of the width and the stephanodonty along the Pliocene-Pleistocene transition. Hitherto, Golunda aouraghei represents the youngest Golunda species recorded in Africa. Report of this murid from Guefaït-4 has significant implications for the biochronological scale of North Africa.